London: Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has been suspended from his role as a Sky Sports pundit after video footage emerged of him spitting towards a girl in a car, the television company said on Monday.

Carragher has apologised for the incident, which took place after Liverpool lost 1-2 to Manchester United on Saturday, calling it "a moment of madness".

The 40-year-old former England international was summoned for talks with Sky Sports who had earlier described his actions as "unacceptable".

"Sky takes this matter extremely seriously and strongly condemns Jamie's actions," Sky Sports said in a statement. "We've made that clear to him in person and suspended him from his duties. It falls well below the standards we expect of our people."

Danish broadcaster TV3 has also dropped Carragher from their coverage of Manchester United's Champions League tie against Sevilla on Tuesday.

"Jamie should have been to Old Trafford for us on Tuesday night," TV3's head of sport Peter Norrelund told Danish media. "We have taken him off. It would have been like sending him into the lion's den. I've watched the video, and it does not look very nice,"

Reuters